Let's talk equipment

Oh, I bet I can upset a bunch of audiophiles here. ;)

What equipment is everyone listening to music with?

I play my music through the built-in sound interfaces of my various computers, through—depending on the device—Bose QC3 bluetooth headphones; probably twenty-five-year-old Altec Lansing stereo computer speakers; or a pair of Koss Pro/4AA studio headphones, selected more for indestructibility than excellent sound.

My music is in a dizzying mishmash of formats: a bunch of CDs ripped to 160kbit/s Vorbis; direct download music from various sources, mostly in whatever format they came in (hint, this always means 320 or 128kbit/s mp3), some transcoded to Vorbis at varying levels of quality; music ripped from youtube videos at whatever quality and in whatever format it came out; and music from elsewhere in whatever format.

What streaming services are you using?

I have a fileserver in my basement.

(Also, I'll use Youtube as a sort-of streaming service. Making the fileserver in my basement accessible outside my house remains on the to-do list; however, I've never been troubled by lack of access from outside, so it's low-priority.)

I'm subscribed to Spotify for music discovery, but I prefer to use my own well-organized library of 320k MP3 (A-B tested FLAC vs MP3 multiple times and I can't tell the difference, unless I'm specifically focusing and looking for it). I use MusicBee on Windows and PowerAMP on Android.

Hardware-wise I usually listen to everything through ATH-M50x plugged into Fulla Schiit (love that huge volume knob). Decent enough setup, wasn't too pricey and honestly I'm just not prepared to spend more to get arguably marginal benefits.

On the go I use airpods and my phone (rip headphone jack).

Starting audiophile here. I got infected by my friends, and I went from nothing to over €1000,- in vinyl records and another €750 in audio gear in about a year.

Most of the vinyl cost comes from a Moonsorrow collection box I ordered; 14 LPs for €25,- each, so €350,- total and €430,- including insured shipping from Finland.

My main setup is a Sennheiser HD660S coupled with an Aune T1se usb tube DAC. Listening to flac or wav files, but usually I use Tidal's hifi/master plan. I bought both of these from a friend who upgraded, at about 1 year of use and reduced cost of €350,- each, so that saved a lot of money.
For travel I've got a Sony WH-1000XM3 noise cancelling headset which is decent, but is a little too bassy for my taste.
I still want to upgrade my (very decent Chinese) DAC to a Schiit item, might also build the Schiit Coaster for the hell of it.

For vinyl, I'm using my dad's old player(Sony PS-LX22) which isn't the greatest but gets the job done; also using my dad's amplifier (music hall a50.2) which is pretty chonky and gives decent audio. Also using his old speakers (he's got different ones now) and I don't really like them since they're like 90% bass and no mids.

Also regarding audio quality: On a headset I don't really notice the difference between high quality MP3 and lossless, but on speakers you feel the sound in the room, vibrating through the floor, walls and furniture. I can't hear those frequencies but they do definitely seem to add to the listening experience. With good speakers at least, definitely not mine.
I don't really have a problem listening to lower quality though; some bands just don't have anything high-quality and there's no choice. Susumu Hirasawa's music is a good example here; I only have 192kbps MP3 files and it's not like the recording is super quality anyway.

Here's my vinyl collection if you're interested:
https://www.discogs.com/user/asoftbird/collection

Some of my favorites in terms of audio quality:
Between the Buried and Me - Automata I & II (vinyl, prog metal)
Amorphis - Queen of Time (vinyl and Tidal's Hifi, folk/melodeath)
Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet (vinyl, folk/blackened metal)

King Gizzard ATLW - Polygondwanaland (vinyl, free download, progrock)
The Doors - LA Woman (vinyl, especially Riders On The Storm sounds super crisp)

If you're into hifi metal, I definitely recommend these. Pity that black metal's defining quality is that it sounds shit, making good quality music difficult to find.

A FiiO E10k and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-880s.

I buy FLAC from Qobuz, or buy CDs and rip them. I listen in foobar2000. I'm not convinced FLAC actually sounds better than well encoded AAC, but I like having the option to re-encode music to any format I want without making second generation lossy copies. Also storage is cheap. I don't spend money on anything higher quality than 48khz/24 bit because I am not a bat.

Using Apple Music. I listen on original AirPods when using headphones, or my car stereo because I usually listen on the way to work. (Not so much these days.) I listen to whatever strikes my fancy. It could be the latest pop hits, something classical, jazz (especially blues piano), but lately I've been into moody instrumental bands. I used Gnoosic to discover some things recently. I had found Slow Dancing Society a few years ago and entered them into Gnoosic, upon which I discovered Lanterna and We The Committee. Good times!

My grandpa spent an absurd amount of money on stereo equipment, he passed away a few years back, and, as most of my family doesn't listen to music as much, they decided that the setup should go to me. It's a Dual 721 turntable, connected to a McIntosh C32 preamp, connected to a McIntosh 2205 amp, connected to a set of XR7 speakers. There's a room equalizer setup too, but I've been moving around so much between college, internships, and jobs that I'm holding off having someone come out and set that up.

It's all heavy (speakers are like 90lb each, amp's around 70), but it's much better than anything I'll be able to afford for the next 20 years or so, and it's nice to have around for the memories.

Usually when I’m on PC I use mp3-320kbps/FLAC files, with ATH-M50x’s going through a Scarlett 2i2 ! But since I’m mostly on my iPad nowadays I usually just use Apple Music alongside the ATH-M50x’s. They do the job pretty well, I’d def recommend them, esp for their price !

I used to be more adamant about "purity" of sound. I'd buy CDs and rip them to FLAC using Exact Audio Copy (or dBpoweramp) and listen with foobar2000 through a pro-audio interface (initially a Lexicon Alpha and now a Steinberg UR22) into either a pair of headphones (initially Bose TriPorts and now AKG K240 MKIIs) or studio monitors (initially Behringer B1030As and now JBL LSR305s).

I'm a little less concerned with the "purity" aspect as I've acquiesced to music streaming and currently subscribe to Google Play Music using Google Play Music Desktop Player on the desktop (duh) and the mobile app..uh..mobiley. Speaking of which, I've used various earphones but settled on Audio-Technica ATH-E50s...until I lost them recently. The rest of the equipment stands, though.

I do miss the ceremony of buying CDs and ripping them...

I've got a pair or psb speakers, not sure if they are good. I've been looking into buying some studio monitors. I already bought some stands for my current speakers which improved the sound quite a bit (they were too low on my desk).

I've had some Sennheiser headphones for a long time, I've ordered a DT 770 PRO, we'll see if they are better.

I mostly download my music (usually mp3 320k, with some FLAC if I feel like it), but at work I do a bit of youtube and spotify.

A very old Harman Kardon amp, JBL speakers and a recent luxury (i.e. I didn't need them) purchase of some Bowers & Wilkins PX7 headphones. Streaming wise I use SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Bandcamp, Deezer, hearthis.at and occasionally YouTube Music. I buy through Bandcamp and direct from labels quite often.

While I would never describe myself as an audiophile, I am somewhat picky about sound quality. A lot of the time digital music stores give you bad quality compression, and since previews are typically recompressed to a lower rate, they don't give you an idea of how the actual music will turn out. So most of the time I buy music I buy the CD and rip to FLAC. I listen to it on various non-audiophile devices, typically through a set of Fiio F5 earbuds, which have a remarkably flat profile.

I'm not much of an audiophile or anything, but I like my Grado SR80e's, although they start to make my ears sore after wearing them for a couple hours. There are earcups for them that are supposedly more comfortable than the stock ones, but they're pretty overpriced, so I'll just deal for now.

If I'm just doing casual daily listening, Spotify is my main choice, but if it's something I really like, I'll buy the CD and rip it as a .flac (doubt it makes a difference with my motherboard's audio chipset though).

I've got a little FIIO E10k (DAC) coming from my HTPC going to a Marantz 1060.

I typically use Foobar2000 with EqualizerAPO and Peace -- almost everything local is FLAC.

I recently got into Spotify, which I really like. It's not lossless, but its not a bad tradeoff for the ease and discovery stuff. It's so nice to share playlists with people.

For records, I'm running a Dual CS 620Q through the Marantz.

My speakers aren't anything fancy -- just some old Akais from the 70s.

For headphones I've got some Sennheiser Momentums and Bowers and Wilkins P7. The P7s are great for jazz and lighter things, but not great for people who want throbbing bass or whatever.